The Flood
The Flood is a parasitic virulent life form, which appears in the Halo Universe. They are depicted as a highly virulent and deadly race, and can quickly incapacitate and infect different life forms, but the infected subject must have sufficient body mass and some level of sentience to sustain the infection forms, such as a Humanor Sangheili (Elite) physiological make-up. Origin and History Like many things about the Flood, their origin is a complete mystery. It is unknown where they came from or if they have a home planet, but what is known is that they originally lived in an environment that is noxious to most other living creatures, as343 Guilty Spark and Cortana both comment on the Flood’s terraforming abilities, implying their natural environment differs significantly from Earth-normal. Little is currently known about the Flood. It is known prehistoric Humanity encountered the parasite first, thousands of years before the events depicted in the Halo series. The first known "arrival" of the Flood occurred some time prior to 110,000 BCE, aboard automated starships of unknown origin that came from the Magellanic Clouds. The crashed remains of these ships were first discovered by ancient humans on worlds near the border of intergalactic space. The vessels, which were found crashed on both inhabited and deserted planets, contained millions of glass cylinders filled with a fine desiccated powder, which was found to consist of inert, short-chain organic molecules of unknown purpose. Humanity studied the material and deemed it to be harmless, but noted that it had psychotropic effects on lower animals. Small dosages were administered to Pheru, popular domestic animals among humans and San 'Shyuum, which resulted in more docile behavior. Unbeknownst to the humans or San'Shyuum at the time, the powder was altering the genetic code of the Pheru, manifesting as improved behavior while slowly changing other aspects of their genome. After several centuries, more disturbing changes appeared. Pheru treated with the powder began exhibiting furry growths and fleshy protrusions, which other Pheru were compelled to consume. Shortly afterward, the Pheru began suffering widespread abortions and genetic deformities, and many were euthanized or released into the wild. Soon afterward, the humans and San'Shyuum who had been in the presence of the altered Pheru began to exhibit some of the symptoms of the powder-induced "disease." Affected on a psychological level by the strange illness, infected victims began to consume the sick Pheru, and parts that were discarded also became vectors for the disease. The afflicted then moved on to cannibalism and sacrifice of the uninfected. The infected humans and San'Shyuum proceeded to spread the disease into other systems, which furthered the scope of the Flood outbreak. At this point, the Flood infestation, which had previously been predominantly a mind and behavior-altering affliction with only relatively minor physical changes, began to reshape its victims into a variety of forms designed to gather victims, engage in combat, and to rapidly consume useful biomass and other resources. The growing outbreak quickly led to a conflict between humanity and the Flood. During the Human-Flood war, Humanity managed to create a cure for the Flood. This landed such a devastating blow to the parasite that they were not heard from again until the Forerunners' first contact at at G617 g1. Unfortunately, the cure was lost when Humanity was devolved by the forerunners as punishment for the Human-Forerunner war. Many confrontations and disasters followed, eventually resulting in the Forerunners instituting a variety of construction projects in order to curb the threat. This varied from war fleets to numerous research installations and weapons platforms constructed all over the galaxy. Varying from shield world installations such as the miniature Dyson sphereknown as Onyx, to the massive orbital installations known as Halos. The Halos in particular served the dual purpose of quarantined research facilities and more importantly, as the delivery system of a super weapon energy pulse capable of wiping out all sentient life of sufficient bio-mass to sustain the Flood in the entire galaxy. In the event of a Flood escape despite the containment procedures, and assuming all other strategic possibilities were exhausted, the Halo System was designed to be fired, cutting off vectors by which the flood might spread. 343 Guilty Spark states that the Halo System was fired once before when it became clear that there was no hope of ending the Flood/Forerunner war by conventional means. The plan worked, and although unthinkable amounts of sentient life were wiped out, the Flood was halted from spreading and starved to death for lack of sustenance... eventually allowing the galaxy to re-populate in an un-infested environment. Despite this measure, some Flood specimens survived in the research facilities aboard the Halo installations themselves, entering into a state of suspended animation and surviving for millennia in dormancy. During the events of the Halo trilogy, the Flood were re-awakened when both Humans and Covenant began to uncover and interfere with the now ancient and abandoned Forerunner Installations. Unknown to the rest of their respective species, the Flood were first encountered by the Human ship 'Spirit of Fire' and an unknown covenant ship commanded by The Prophet of Regret and the Arbiter when both ships stumbled upon and fought over an unknown miniature Dyson Sphere disguised as a planet. Several confrontations took place involving all three factions, and the reason the Flood was active and uncontained at this particular facility are unknown; though it is likely that it was a battlefield during the Flood/Forerunner War, the Flood being the obvious victors. It is known the humans were unable to pass along information about this threat back to the main UNSC government or forces due to extensive damage to their ship. Whether the Covenant were able to escape and communicate the threat is not explicitly stated, but it is heavily implied as they seem to conduct themselves with a degree of foreknowledge aboard Alpha Halo 20 years later. During the events of the first Halo, the Flood were accidentally unleashed by the Covenant, decimating all other factions on the Installation and spreading at a frightening rate. The Covenant retreated, suppressed and sealed the entrances but a team of UNSC marines lead by Captain Keyes of The Pillar of Autumn, unwittingly unsealed the Flood, sealing the fate of Installation 04. With the Covenant and UNSC forces battling one another, the Flood saw an opportunity to spread further than the boundaries of the Installation and set their sights on spaceships currently in Orbit. There were three recorded attempts to board and repair ships and leave Installation 04. The release of the Flood on Installation 04 prompted the Monitor of the Installation, 343 Guilty spark, to seek a reclaimer to retrieve the Index. Conveniently, there was one on board the installation: Spartan-117, John, Master Chief Petty Officer. After the Master Chief retrieves and begins to use the Index, the true nature of the Halo rings is revealed by the Chief's own AI, Cortana. Discovering that Halo's defense system is a weapon designed to kill all sentient life in the galaxy, which the Flood need to spread. When confronted with this information, 343 Guilty Spark states that the installation technically only has a maximum radius of twenty-five thousand light-years, but that its pulse would trigger other similar installations as well, killing all sentient life in the galaxy. * The first was when a force of Flood managed to take over the Covenant supply/agriculture ship Infinite Succor. A strike team led by Rtas 'Vadumee (Half-Jaw) was sent to investigate a distress signal from the ship. After a series of loses on the Rtas 'Vadumee side, the only way to win the battle was to destroy the ship which was done by opening a slip-space window to the nearest sun, the Prophet on board tried to change Rtas 'Vadumee's mind to no avail. It is presumed the ship, with the Flood on it was destroyed entering the sun, but it is not confirmed. * The second attempt was when the flood tried to board and leave on the Truth and Reconciliation. This attempt was less successful, as Covenant forces were able to defend their ship, but due to their dwindling numbers they were instead over run by Marines commanded by Major Silva. Major Silva was about to leave Installation 04 on the Truth and Reconciliation but unknown to him or his team-mates they had stowaways. Jenkins insanity warnings, due to his partially flood transformed body, eventually got through to First Lieutenant Melissa, an ODST under Silva's command, and she destroyed an important energy transfer cable with a grenade, this disconnected the connection between the engines and controls. The ship fell back into the gravity of the Installation and everyone aboard was killed. * The third attempt was to use a badly-damaged Pillar of Autumn. It was heavily damaged due to wounds inflicted in a fire fight with Covenant ships and the later crash landing: this meant the ship was over looked by the Covenant. When the Flood infected a number of Marines and workmen who served on the ship, they were able to acquire the knowledge about the ship systems and began repairs. They were interrupted by Covenant forces, the Master Chief and 343 Guilty Spark with Sentinels. The Master Chief later set the fusion reactor core on the Pillar of Autumn to overload which caused the resulting explosion to destroy Installation 04. Heretics had commandeered a Forerunner station in the gas giant Threshold that Installation 04 orbited. The station was already holding The Flood for defensive study by the Forerunners. The Flood overran the station, and the Arbiter cut three cables holding the station above the Gas Gaint, plunging it into the heart of the planet. The second outbreak happened on Installation 05, also known as Delta Halo to the humans. This outbreak by the Flood was far more advanced and organised, with the Flood managing to take over the Covenant High Charity, using a number of UNSC Pelican drop ships from a crashed In Amber Clad to board the giant floating city. On Delta Halo, Gravemind revealed himself to Master Chief, the Arbiter and Cortana, his reasons for saving their lives were not found until Master Chief saw Pelican drop ships carrying The Flood. Master Chief and the Arbiter were only a diversion for Gravemind's plan. Eventually, Gravemind rooted himself in High Charity most likely using the teleportation grid, and the Flood took control of High Charity. During these events, one of the human AIs, Cortana, was captured by the Flood and interrogated by the Gravemind, who was hoping to corrupt the AI into leaking important information. To stop this from happening, Spartan 117 was dispatched to retrieve or destroy Cortana. During the crusade Master Chief was transmitted messages from Medicant Bias, a corrupt Forerunner AI. When he finally confronted the Gravemind, it was revealed that the Gravemind was going to rebuild his invasion force on Installation 04 and Installation 00, the Ark, by crashing High Charity into Installation 00. Life-Cycle and Biology The Flood appears in four primary forms: Infection, Combat, Carrier and Pure forms, but also have more mysterious forms such as the "Brain" form. The flood will consume all sentient life it comes in contact with, and can mutate its hosts into various forms to help it do so. There are three stages in the evolution of a flood colony: # Feral: This is the first stage of the evolution: the flood species will work as individuals and will attack anything they see – even each other. # Colonial: This is the second stage of the evolution: the flood species first start showing signs of ethological behavior. They form a hive mind and start building a "brain form". # Civilizational: This is the final stage of the evolution: this stage is triggered when the colony reach a critical biomass; when they first start making a gravemind. This is the most dangerous of the stages: it is the point when all flood forms are united and actually start thinking like a hivemind, and reach human-level intelligence: they can coordinate attacks on specific locations; attacks on specific targets and start utilizing technology. Fanon Info * In late 2008, a meteorite holding The Flood Species, fell to Goji Island and created a cave, where the species thrives to this day and still infects creatures. Category:Aliens Category:Monsters living on Goji Island Category:Monsters Category:Video game monsters